Lately we have been lucky to find ourselves often in Peter Cooper Village Stuyvesant Town” (PCVST), located in the East Village of Manhattan. It’s a pretty comfy place. Lots of lights, large kitchen to cook in, and a beautiful setting all around. Among our clients there are:

Ghost, the French Bulldog

The most handsome French Bull Dog

And Kassie the French Bull Dog and Lambeau the Long Hair Cat.

Kassie the Frenchie

The loudest, but fluffiest cat

Over the next few months we will log over at least a month of petsitting here, maybe nearly two! It sure is blissful living here with such nice pets, and I’m happy to report that Sandy and I are nearly booked solid with petsits through September! Oh, how I love summer with all the travel of our clients!

Where is Stuyvesant Town?

Stuyvesant Town is one of the largest residential complexes of Manhattan. It covers 80 acres and takes up land from First Avenue through Avenue C, and arching north from 14th to 23rd Street. You can count among its 110 buildings 11,250 apartments and 25,000+ residents!

East 20th Street looking east in the direction of First Avenue in 1938. This picture shows two of the huge gas holders that gave the area the name Gas House District

PVCST is located in area of Manhattan that was formerly given the name, the “Gas House District.” It’s a bit controversial a development as it

My History with Stuyvesant Town

2008 – On the Search for a Cheap Room in NYC

In 2008, Looking for cheap housing, after quitting law school and quickly being escorted out of my post school housing rental, I found a room on Craigslist there that seemed too good to be true. It was.

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A 14′ by 10′ bedroom for $750/month, all utilities included! After being invited to take a look at the place, I gingerly rung the doorbell, wondering what I would set my eyes on for such a rate. The owner was obviously reaping the benefits of rent control. It had been rumored that cheap apartments could be found here if one had a long-standing elderly relative available to pass one on.

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A not unkind elderly lady answered the door and showed me around the apartment. The room was large and was furnished with a bed and a couple simple pieces of furniture. The apartment was shabby. The walls were stained with the light brown grain of cooking, that matched the worn in look of her once plush, now deeply matted with dust, Oriental carpets that lined her apartment. It was clear she had been settled into this place for decades.

It was on par with this abandoned house. 😉

However, as there always is with housing deals in NYC, there was a catch.

We sat down in the living room after the tour. I sat with eyes wide, brimming with put-upon excitement as I prepared to woo her, as I often did during these interviews. I was anxious as to what it may be like to have a senior room mate, but I also knew a good deal when I saw one.

I was only making about $30,000 a year as I had not taken on a real job since leaving law school and was very part-time grading SAT, ACT, MCAT, GRE, and GMAT essays at $1-2 a pop. Following the rule of spending a quarter of one’s salary on rent, I had, pre-tax, a budget of $7500 a year, or $625/month, to spend on housing. This would be over budget, but perhaps it was worth blowing my budget.
She clearly had discussed this prospect with others because she immediately began reciting me a script of her household roles:

Squeegee the shower walls ALWAYS (or die)

Always clean up. Keep one’s bedroom tidy

And with a death rattle she delivered the final rule, the death blow in my case, “No friends allowed over, especially males.”

The final rule sealed the deal for me as a young, single lady in her early twenties. I was not about to sacrifice my dating life for a good deal, to leave with a lady that would likely be disappointed w/ my squeegeeing ability, so I bounced, after thanking her for her time.

The cheapest room in Stuy Town

As you can see, above, a good deal can still be found in Stuy Town. This is currently on craigslist, and I was tempted to apply just to be able to meet and document the reality of this situation, but with some big news TBA soon, I’ve been too busy for fun little ventures like this.

The history continues…

2010 – Face Painting Birthday Party

I face painted about 20 cute children at a playground birthday party.

2012 – Providing Homework Help at The Oval

For a year, I was in charge of sourcing a Bright Kids tutor to their Homework Help Club twice a week.

2016 – The Worst Petsit – Lorenza

In 2014, we watched a very poorly behaved overweight English Bull Dog who would chew to bits anything in her reach and then whine for hours about being let into the bedroom at night, only to them spend the evening taking up much of the bed, breathing heavy in our faces and humping Sandy. She was so bad that when we handed the keys over to friends of the residents for a couple weeks, they demanded, within two days of living there, that the dog be sent away to boarding for the rest of their stay.

Ongoing

So oddly enough, my life has been oddly intertwined with this beautiful, serene, but very busy, humming community in the southeast end of Manhattan for a very long time.

I’m glad a lot of the crazyness and desperation of needing work or housing, early on into my move into NYC, is over, so now Sandy and I can relax in just merely living in Stuyvesant town with our beautiful little friends.

Doo doo doo. Just kicking my feet around, sitting with my cup of coffee, while washing our laundry for the week 🙂 Just another reason to love petsits